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Stuart Garfield
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
2010 Women to Watch
Draper Lab's Livia Racz has innovation in her heritage
By Rodney H. Brown
MHT talks with Tanja Dominko, WPI researcher and CellThera president
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Nanotechnology may spark next New England manufacturing revolution
MooBella provides on-demand ice cream demo
Livia Racz
Division leader for advanced hardware development, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc.
Education: Bachelor’s degree, materials science and engineering, MIT; Ph.D., MIT
Noteworthy: Her work has led to breakthroughs in electronic systems design and packaging. Her team is developing a new paradigm for electronics packaging that enables the world’s smallest multi-material electronic systems.
And more: As a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Racz was part of a recorded performance of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe that won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance in January.
On her childhood
“I’m 100 percent Hungarian — my family’s from Hungary. I was born in France since my parents were refugees of the 1956 uprising. Our family moved to the U.S. when I was in early elementary school. They wound up in the New York area, and two years later, they moved to Massachusetts so my father could help start a chemical company. My father’s invention is a food-grade coating that is made from corn and is used to coat pills that makes them easier to swallow. It’s used to coat microwaveable food products, and it’s the coating used on Reese’s Pieces.”
Was science always your path?
“There was a microscope at home, and I just kind of had things around that related to science. I almost became a music major. When it came time to apply for colleges I had to decide. I thought it would be easier to be a musician as a hobby than it would be to be a scientist as a hobby.”
How did your one-year at Lasertron change your view of academia as your choice for research?
“In retrospect, I had some pretty mediocre student internship experiences in industry. I think that is a very common thing. I got this ‘temporary position’ — it was always meant to be temporary — at Lasertron. I figured, whatever it is, I could handle it for a year, and then I’m just going to go into academia. To my surprise, it was really a great experience.”
The importance of internships
“This is something that I have talked people’s ears off about. I am sure that they are tired of listening to me by now. But I really feel it is incredibly important to have a well-defined project. You know, you just say ‘Oh, I’ll hire a student and figure out what to have them do later,’ which is very common. Or hire a student and they are going to watch beakers for me. That’s really not going to cut it. If you don’t care what happens to that student later, that’s a fine thing to do, but if you are really trying to mentor someone that’s really not a very good thing to do.”
Thoughts on Racz, from John Dowdle, vice president of engineering for Draper Labs
“From a leadership point of view, she is a very good managing leader of people. Draper is a very technological organization. You have to have somebody that is on par with the technology, which she clearly is, but you also to have somebody who can clearly communicate their vision for the future. It’s very rare, particularly for the kinds of technologies we are in — finding somebody who has the three legs of management, leadership and technology.”
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